Contact: Lee Siegel
leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah

A Germanium Wafer for Solar Power Cells

Caption: A wafer of the element germanium, a semiconductor that is used as the bottom layer of highly efficient solar power cells. University of Utah engineers have devised a new way of cutting the wafers so that less of the expensive material is wasted during the cutting process. The method may reduce the cost of germanium-based solar cells and make them more economical to use on Earth. Because of their high cost, they now are used mainly on spacecraft.

Credit: Eberhard Bamberg, University of Utah

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